Oman tie a must win for Uganda

Mohammad ‘Afridi’ Irfan, man of match against Singapore, batting against Canada. He will be crucial to Uganda’s hopes of beating Oman today. PHOTO BY Eddie Chicco

What you need to know:

  • Uganda will confront a nation they have only beaten once in four meetings, a three-wicket win at 2012 ICC Twenty20 World Cup Qualifier

Kampala.

Team Uganda is dealing with two unfamiliar things at the ongoing ICC World Cricket Division League (WCL) Three tournament.

Being hosts, they face the inevitable weight of expectation from the home crowd and also, they are mentally dealing with a rare false start. That’s even after they responded to Tuesday’s opening 66-run defeat to Canada with an identical victory over Singapore at Entebbe on Wednesday.

“Obviously, we shouldn’t have lost to Canada. That put us in a corner where we had no choice but fight out,” Cricket Cranes’ skipper Davis Karashani stated after castling Singapore.

Having done a critical analysis during the tournament rest day yesterday, Uganda will hope to grow stronger by delivering another win when they face Oman at the University Oval in Kyambogo this morning.

Uganda will confront a nation they have only beaten once in four meetings, a three-wicket win at 2012 ICC Twenty20 World Cup Qualifier.

Oman is tutored by former Sri Lanka captain Duleep Mendis and it is one of the few countries left in both 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup and 2020 ICC World T20.

Actually, Oman earned the ICC T20 status when they featured at the last year’s World Cup in India, won by West Indies.

In the limited-overs’ format, they were relegated at the 2013 WCL Division Three in Bermuda (Uganda came second here) but they won the 2016 WCL Division Five in Jersey and came second behind hosts USA at the 2016 WCL Division Four.

Here, Oman opened up with a four-wicket win over USA in Entebbe before losing by 83 runs to Canada in Lugogo, leaving them desperately fifth out of six.

Their stand-out player has been Zeeshan Maqsood who has scored a combined 104 runs in both games.

With about two changes expected, Karashani acknowledges the team has done enough homework about their Asian opponents.

“We know their quality and they are here to mean business. They have weaknesses which we feel we can exploit as a bowling and batting unit.”

Key to beating Oman will be a better batting display.

ICC WCL DIVISION THREE

Singapore vs. USA Lugogo
Uganda vs. Oman Kyambogo
Canada vs. Malaysia Entebbe